Employment provides financial stability and a sense of identity and purpose to many Canadians. In recent years, this security has been shattered by employers eager to push medical mandates on their employees, on pain of dismissal.

 

Unjust Termination

Duong Yee found herself caught up in just such a situation. Mrs. Yee was a non-union employee with 11 years of service to her employer, WestJet, when her employment was unjustly terminated.

In 2021, WestJet implemented a policy requiring employees to receive a medical intervention or lose their jobs. Mrs. Yee’s Christian faith compelled her to abstain, leaving her unable to satisfy the employer’s policy requirement.

Mrs. Yee sought religious accommodation, since her religious beliefs and conduct are protected pursuant to human rights legislation. WestJet refused, asserting Mrs. Yee’s beliefs were not actually religious, and proceeded to fire her, alleging just cause—despite the fact she worked from home and had no contact with customers or other employees.

 

Justice Prevails

Mrs. Yee retained KITCHEN WELLS LLP to bring her case before the Alberta Court of Justice. In a precedential decision, the Court ruled in Mrs. Yee’s favour on two important points: the accommodation; and proportionality of the termination generally.

While the Court found Mrs. Yee discharged her burden of demonstrating her sincere religious beliefs relating to the medical intervention, it also found that terminating her employment was a disproportionate response to the policy breach, with or without the protected characteristic of religion.

 

Precedent Set

The takeaways are clear: Employees who have discharged their burden of proving sincere, subjective religious beliefs which inform their conduct must be accommodated unless doing so is practically impossible; and termination of employment for cause will be a bridge too far if a policy breach is not sufficiently serious to undermine the employment relationship as a whole.

If you find yourself facing off with a giant and need a tenacious lawyer to advocate for you, contact KITCHEN WELLS LLP for a consultation.

This article was prepared by the editorial team at Kitchen & Wells LLP
to provide general information on current legal matters.